“I stand ready to continue the process of negotiating constitutional reforms that protect public employees as well as core services.”

SPRINGFIELD — State Senator Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago 13th), co-chair of a conference committee that sent a compromise plan for pension reform to the courts last December, issued the following statement in response to Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Belz’s opinion that the measure does not pass constitutional muster:

"Today’s ruling sends yet another signal that – as I have always maintained – our constitution does not allow state government to run roughshod over contractual rights, even in times of great financial hardship. The judicial evaluation of last year’s compromise pension reform plan is far from complete, and I await the guidance of the Illinois Supreme Court. I stand ready, once we receive that guidance, to continue the process of negotiating constitutional reforms that protect public employees as well as core services, such as education and health care."